The present invention relates to a method and a device for stowing and handling modular propelling charges of modular type in artillery guns with fully or semi-automatic loading systems.
It is already possible using artillery locating radar and other surveillance systems for example, to determine rapidly and with high precision the location of an artillery gun that has opened fire. There is thus a good opportunity for an enemy to open effective counter-battery fire. The artillery has therefore more or less been forced to depart from its previously fairly stationary tactics, in favour of significantly more mobile tactics involving rapid engagements in the form of short intensive fires, followed by immediate redeployment to a pre-determined deployment site at a sufficiently safe distance from the previous one. These new tactics have resulted in an increased need for every gun to be self-propelled and capable of carrying at least a primary requirement of ammunition.
One must also assume that coming generations of artillery will use propelling charges of modular type, i.e. propelling charges consisting of a number of modular charges of different sizes such as length and, to a certain extent, diameter, and of different charge strength with primarily rigid combustible outer casing that are combinable in various ways to provide the desired mule velocities. At present this system of modular charges is called M(A)CS, i.e. Modular (Artillery) Charge System. Moreover, as the next generation of artillery guns is expected to be equipped with armoured protection against battlefield fragments to an even greater extent than is normal today, next generation loading systems will be required to operate very rapidly and be capable of stowing large quantities of propelling charges and of handling all the different types of modular charges in the M(A)CS. The propelling charges must also be stowable in the least possible space. In addition, loading systems shall be robust and durable, and the propelling charge magazine shall be replenishable in a very short time, preferably from a vehicle equipped with an automatic resupply unit.
There is a description of the basic principles for a propelling charge handling system that meets the above requirements in Swedish patent application no. 9604422-7.
This propelling charge handling system is based on the use of a very compact stowage space in which the modular charges are stowed linearly in a number of magazine tubes arranged in parallel with each other, each magazine tube containing modular charges of preferably one and the same type. Each such magazine tube terminates in a common vertical endplane, with each aperture being open for retrieval of the desired number of modular charges from one or more pre-determined magazine tubes. The inside of each such magazine tube is equipped with a controllable outfeed mechanism which ensures that the number of modular propelling charges fed out is always correct. A dedicated manipulator retrieves the selected number of modular charges from the outfeed aperture of the pre-determined magazine tube.
This manipulator can be described as an industrial robot with limited operating motion arranged to manoeuvre a retrieval tube between the outfeed apertures of the magazine tubes. The retrieval tube is thus aligned with the outfeed aperture of a magazine tube after which the desired number of modular charges are transferred to the retrieval tube. This can thus retrieve modular charges from a number of different magazine tubes in succession, and thereby assemble a complete propelling charge of the desired charge strength before it is manoeuvred to an outer end position aligned with the loading pendulum used to load the artillery gun in question and to which the complete charge is transferred by, for example, an ejector built into the retrieval tube. The ejector can also be used to determine the number of modular charges to be retrieved from a specific magazine tube. The pattern of movement of the manipulator involves preferably a parallel displacement of its retrieval tube between different positions in two mutually perpendicular planes so that the retrieval tube is always aligned with the longitudinal axis of the magazine tube with whose outfeed aperture it is docked.
In the Swedish patent application referenced above there are three different methods and devices for manoeuvring the manipulator retrieval tube between the outfeed apertures of the various magazine tubes described above. All three methods and devices satisfy the conditions defined above for manoeuvring the retrieval tube, and as a consequence all three may be used in conjunction with the present invention. However, the best design of the manipulator is probably the one in which the end of the retrieval tube opposite its infeed-outfeed aperture is mounted in one of two guide rails arranged at an angle to each other, one of which defines the vertical motion of the retrieval tube and the other the lateral motion of the retrieval tube, and whose respective carriages travel in parallel planes to each other. each plane being at right angles to the retrieval tube.
The present invention thus relates not to the basic principles for such a loading system but to the practical design of the components incorporated, primarily the magazine tubes and manipulator and the parts incorporated therein, and how they interact with each other. It is essential that this is arranged in such a way that the correct number of modular charges is always transferred from the magazine tubes to the manipulator retrieval tube, and that the functioning of the manipulator is not disturbed by the modular charges which, so to speak, only go half-way between the relevant magazine tube and the retrieval tube. One must remember that this is an ultra-rapid loading system in which the modular charges are moved between the relevant magazine tube and the manipulator retrieval tube at a velocity of several metres per second, and more or less immediately after being deposited in the retrieval tube shall be ready for transfer to the loading pendulum for subsequent ramming in the gun. This latter operation means that from the beginning the modular charges shall be packed close together, end-to-end in the manipulator retrieval tube so that they can be transferred without delay to the loading pendulum, which can then ram them as a single unit into the gun.
To summarise, the present invention can be defined as a detailed design of a device for artillery guns with fully or semi-automatic loading systems for stowing, handling and, prior to loading of the gun in question, preparing propelling charges consisting of a number of combinable modular charges of M(A)CS type that can be of variable propelling strengths depending on size, length, diameter and/or because they contain different types of propellant, but which all have in the main a rigid, combustible outer casing containing the necessary initiation compositions, and which modular charges are freely combinable to enable selection of the appropriate muzzle velocity to provide the desired range and trajectory for the projectile. The device in the present invention also presupposes that the stowage space for the modular charges shall be comprised of a number of mutually parallel magazine tubes arranged above and beside each other, each tube being capable of accommodating a number of modular charges arranged linearly end-to-end, and wherein each such magazine tube terminates in a common vertical endplane with each outfeed aperture being accessible for a retrieval tube that can be manoeuvred step-by-step between the outfeed apertures by a manipulator. The retrieval tube can thereby be aligned with each relevant magazine tube. The manipulator has at least one outer stop position for the retrieval tube in which the retrieval tube is beside the magazine tubes while simultaneously being immediately behind and in alignment with the loading pendulum used to ram the gun in question, and to which loading pendulum the modular charges in the retrieval tube shall be immediately transferred. Each of the magazine tubes is also equipped with an internal outfeed function for feeding out the selected number of modular charges on each occasion.
Furthermore, the manipulator retrieval tube in the present invention incorporates a built-in outfeed device that can be docked with the outfeed device of each magazine tube in such a way that the outfeed device of the retrieval tube reverses at the same rate as the outfeed device of the magazine tube to enable transfer of the modular charges to the retrieval tube. In this way the modular charges are kept packed together, end-to-end while being transferred from the relevant magazine tube to the retrieval tube.
The retrieval tube is also designed in such a way that prior to each transfer of modular charge(s) it reverses a short distance from the magazine tube with which it was previously engaged so that it travels independently to alignment with the next magazine tube from which modular charge(s) is(are) to be retrieved and travels forwards to dock with that magazine tube.
The retrieval tube and the magazine tubes are also fitted with retainers that retain the outermost modular charge in the respective tubes to prevent it from falling out.
The present invention also includes two variants of how one can achieve parallel control of the selected magazine tube and the outfeed device of the retrieval tube. This could thus be enabled by means of interconnectable gears or parallel controlled electric motors.
One method of driving all magazine tube outfeed devices by one and the same electric motor is also described, in which drive is freely selectable solely for the outfeed function of the relevant magazine tube. This solution is based on the principle that the electric motor drives the input shafts for all the magazine tube outfeed devices with a combined electric clutch/brake engaged between these shafts and outfeed devices, whereby the clutch function is actuated at the shaft of the magazine tube outfeed device selected for outfeed while the braking function is simultaneously actuated for the other shafts.